xiv, 769 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : 24 cm

"The Invention of Science goes back five hundred years in time to chronicle this crucial transformation, exploring the factors that led to its birth and the people who made it happen. Wootton argues that the Scientific Revolution was actually five separate yet concurrent events that developed independently, but came to intersect and create a new worldview. Here are the brilliant iconoclasts--Galileo, Copernicus, Brahe, Newton, and many more curious minds from across Europe--whose studies of the natural world challenged centuries of religious orthodoxy and ingrained superstition. From gunpowder technology, the discovery of the new world, movable type printing, perspective painting, and the telescope to the practice of conducting experiments, the laws of nature, and the concept of the fact, Wootton shows how these discoveries codified into a social construct and a system of knowledge." -- Publisher's website

Originally published in 2015 by Penguin Random House UK

Includes bibliographical references (pages 573-722) and index

Introduction. Modern minds ; The idea of the scientific revolution -- Part One. The heavens and the earth: Inventing discovery ; Planet Earth -- Part Two. Seeing is believing: The mathematization of the world ; Gulliver's worlds -- Part Three. Making knowledge: Facts ; Experiments ; Laws ; Hypotheses/Theories ; Evidence and judgement -- Part Four. Birth of the modern: Machines ; The disenchantment of the world ; Knowledge is power -- Conclusion. The invention of science: In defiance of nature ; These postmodern days ; 'What do I know?'

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